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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405496">Decimals and Fractions</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit'>Ilthit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Community (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alcohol, Alternate Professions, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Retail, F/F, Mention of drug addiction, mention of alcoholism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:48:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24405496</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/pseuds/Ilthit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It had been either community college or online studies, and Annie hadn't felt like facing another high-pressure environment, so as soon as she got out of rehab and put enough savings together to get a crummy apartment in a terrible part of town, she enrolled in an online bachelor's degree course in library science. </i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annie Edison/Britta Perry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Trope Bingo: Round Fourteen, femslashficlets</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Decimals and Fractions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been either community college or online studies, and Annie hadn't felt like facing another high-pressure environment, so as soon as she got out of rehab and put enough savings together to get a crummy apartment in a terrible part of town, she enrolled in an online bachelor's degree course in library science.</p><p>They expected most of the class to drop out. They were right. But Annie Edison, even when clean, wasn't a quitter, and the local library had open internet access, an affordable coffee dispenser and air-conditioning. What else was she going to do? Where else was she going to go?</p><p>Libraries had always felt a little bit like home to her.</p><p>She'd trace the Dewey decimal numbers on the books with her fingernail after wrapping up for the day, seeing just how well she could remember each meaning. She noted the people who came in and never even looked at the books, the kids who spent all day lounging in the comics section, the jobseekers and the moms with little children, and thought about how she'd make all their lives easier one day.</p><p>But then, inevitably, it was time to pack up, leave the library, and get to her night-job behind the corner shop counter.</p><p>-</p><p>"Hey," said the banged-up looking blonde who'd shuffled up to her counter, and hesitated. Annie's nerves kicked up. Starburns was at the back with his bat, she reminded herself, and the glass was bulletproof. "Uh... You guys got an opening?"</p><p>Annie relaxed. "You'll have to ask the manager."</p><p>"Yeah?" Life returned to the girl, a smile that blossomed on her small face, transforming it from tired to beautiful. "When's she in? Can I leave an application?"</p><p>Annie realized she would have said 'he'. Little Annie Adderall still thought all authority figures must be male. She noted the woman's necklace, a little Venus symbol hanging next to an anarchy symbol, and the leather jacket with its band tags, and felt a little heat gather at the bottom of her belly. She hoped—maybe—that Shirley really did need another cashier. "She's just left to go get her kids from school. She'll be back tomorrow if you come in before four. Hold on, let me get you a sheet."</p><p>She kept her eye on the hot girl anyway as she turned to the shelves, making sure nothing got stolen. "Any experience?"</p><p>"Uhh, yeah, at a bar." Annie read the girl's large, round hand backwards. Britta Perry. "I know cash registers, anyway."</p><p>"Any bar I'd know?"</p><p>Another smile. Her eyes were big and blue like oceans as she glanced up from the paper. "Sorry, you don't exactly look twenty-one."</p><p>"Twenty," Annie admitted as she took back the paper. There really wasn't much to fill in. Shirley wasn't picky. "Hope you get it."</p><p>-</p><p>"Do you think I could be a librarian too?"</p><p>Britta was hanging over Annie's shoulder, trying to read her study notes spread out over the backroom table. The stool was not really meant for two to sit on, but Britta managed somehow, with half her butt on the seat and one foot on the ground.</p><p>"I don't know. Do you like numbers?"</p><p>"I like statistics. Did you know that sixty percent of adults can't have a ten-minute conversation without lying?"</p><p>"Was that a lie?"</p><p>Britta's lips stretched in a smug smile. "Maybe."</p><p>Annie smelled Starburns's cigarette breath before she heard his footsteps. "You two dating or something? Can I watch?"</p><p>"Ugh!" Britta peeled herself off Annie with a disgusted look at Starburns, and something in Annie's mind and heart went empty and still for a second.</p><p>-</p><p><em>I like Britta Perry</em>, Annie wrote in her diary that night, between the carefully drawn flowery borders she used to mark her private thoughts apart from her to-do lists. <em>I LIKE-like her.</em></p><p>
  <em>Am I gay? Am I going to be a gay librarian? </em>
</p><p>For some reason, that thought, once she stopped hyperventilating, left her with a crazy sense of happiness.</p><p>-</p><p>Annie graduated at the top of her class. Of course the competition had dwindled by then. But she'd put her few pennies in this course, she'd stuck her nose to the grindstone and she'd made it. Her mother still wouldn't be proud. Knowing that as she did at that moment, watching the store's rumbling old printer print out her diploma, was both bittersweet and strangely liberating.</p><p>"Whoo-whoo!" Britta danced the few steps from the backroom fridge to the printer, painfully curled and stiffened locks bouncing through the air, a baby bottle of chilled champagne (or bubbly wine, anyway) in one hand and a pair of slim glasses in another.</p><p>(They'd all gone out for Annie's twenty-first birthday, and it had been an eye-opener in some ways, but in the end everyone agreed they should not have brought Starburns.)</p><p>"Here you go." Britta deposited a glass in Annie's hand and popped the bottle, pouring with expertise. "To your newer, better, less Starburns-filled life."</p><p>They clinked their glasses, and shared a look. Britta's eyes fell first, and her smile melting into a line. "I'll miss you."</p><p>"I hope you don't have to?"</p><p>"I will. You've been the best thing about working in this dump."</p><p>Annie wanted to ask her out. The words were almost on her lips. Her toes were tipping her forward, into that fall of hair, but something held her back. "You'll come and see me at the library, won't you?"</p><p>"Yeah." Now the eyes were back, and Annie could drown in them. "It won't be the same, though."</p><p>A silence fell between them, waiting for Annie to speak. She opened her mouth.</p><p>"Tonight. I mean." Britta pulled her hair back behind one ear, looking suddenly fragile. "You and me. Tonight? Somewhere fun. No Starburns."</p><p>"And no Shirley?"</p><p>"Um. No. You know she shouldn't do bars, because of the whole, uhh."</p><p>"Yeah. It'd be like me working at a pharmacy."</p><p>"So…?"</p><p>Annie's face broke into a grin. "Yeah."</p><p>She was definitely going to be a gay librarian.</p>
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